U.S. mortgage activity hits 2-month high as interest rates fall: MBA

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. borrowers filed the most loan requests to buy a home and to refinance one in two months as most lending costs declined to their lowest levels since September, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

The Washington-based group’s seasonally adjusted index on mortgage applications increased 1.6 percent to 346.0 in the week ended Dec. 7. This was the strongest reading since the week of Oct. 5 when it was 346.7.

Interest rates on 30-year, fixed-rate “conforming” mortgages with balances of $453,100 or less averaged 4.96 percent last week, the lowest level since the week of Sept. 28. They averaged 5.08 percent the prior week.

The weekly drop in the 30-year conforming mortgage rate was the steepest since March 2017.